Several commenters have posted the relevant section of the "Carriage Agreement":

"4. Compensation for Passengers Denied Boarding Involuntarily

a.For passengers traveling in interstate transportation between points within the United States, subject to the EXCEPTIONS in section d) below, UA shall pay compensation to Passengers denied boarding involuntarily from an Oversold Flight at the rate of 200% of the fare to the Passenger's first Stopover or, if none, Destination, with a maximum of 675 USD if UA offers Alternate Transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the Passenger's Destination or first Stopover more than one hour but less than two hours after the planned arrival time of the Passenger's original flight. If UA offers Alternate Transportation that, at the time the arrangement is made, is planned to arrive at the Passenger's Destination or first Stopover more than two hours after the planned arrival time of the Passenger's original flight, UA shall pay compensation to Passengers denied boarding involuntarily from an Oversold Flight at the rate of 400% of the fare to the Passenger's first Stopover or, if none, Destination with a maximum of 1350 USD. "

Aside from the fact that no one (well, almost no one) ever reads the carriage agreement, there seem to be a few problems here:

1) The guy was already on the plane. IOW, he had not been 'denied boarding'.
2) The compensation offered was in the form of a voucher. I am not sure this can be considered a USD payment.
3) The people who were being given the seats in question were UA employees, who were apparently needed as flight crew at the destination airport. Can this be counted in terms of the flight being 'oversold'? (i.e. They never bought a ticket.)

The police involvement in what is essentially a contractual dispute where no one's safety was at risk is questionable, unless the man's continued presence on the flight was a 'trespass'.

If Trump supporters wanted a tough guy, why did they elect such a whiny bitch? - Mo

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I don't claim to know whether the use of police to drag him off the plane was legally valid, or who's in the right concerning the contract, but whichever manager made the decision to ask the police to do so should be fired for incompetence. Even if (for the sake of argument) it was a 100% legally valid move it was about the worst move possible from a PR and customer relations standpoint.

Then again, abject incompetence is the sort of thing that gets you promoted at United.

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If I were a cop pulling a nonviolent middleaged doctor out of a seat he paid for and off of a plane on his face, I might pause while kicking the shit out of him and think "am I on the right side of this?"

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The officer -- one of three involved in the Sunday night incident -- did not follow protocol, according to a statement from the Chicago Department of Aviation, and as a result "has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation."

"The actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department," the statement said.

The officer -- one of three involved in the Sunday night incident -- did not follow protocol, according to a statement from the Chicago Department of Aviation, and as a result "has been placed on leave effective today pending a thorough review of the situation."

"The actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department," the statement said.

United's CEO said that the staff had "no choice" but to bring in goons. Apparently, there are no options between go above $800 and goon squad. Though is looks like goon squad will likely end up costing at least 3 to 4 orders of magnitude more.

his voice is so soothing, but why do conspiracy nuts always sound like Batman and Robin solving one of Riddler's puzzles out loud? - fod

Mo wrote:United's CEO said that the staff had "no choice" but to bring in goons. Apparently, there are no options between go above $800 and goon squad. Though is looks like goon squad will likely end up costing at least 3 to 4 orders of magnitude more.

OFFS, now National Review is dispirited that everyone just sat by as law enforcement roughed this guy up, yet is always the first to say, "X deserved to get killed because they were insufficiently respectful of the police." GFY.

his voice is so soothing, but why do conspiracy nuts always sound like Batman and Robin solving one of Riddler's puzzles out loud? - fod